Sentinel 29
by Vulcanic
Summary: The Senate of Life has come to know the fate that awaits the Mass Effect universe. Should these events come to pass they would be in violation of the senate's directive. They need a guardian, a Sentinel, for what is now known as Galaxy 29.
1. Chapter 1

Hey, thanks for trying out my fanfic. Starting with writing was something I had in my mind for quite some time, and now that I have started with it I like to think the first chapter is passable at least. Just for the record: I do not own Mass Effect. (Must have been a big surprise for you, I know.)

On with the story.

* * *

**Sentinel 29**

The Senate of Life has come to know the fate that awaits the Mass Effect universe. Should these events come to pass they would be in violation of the senate's directive. They need a guardian, a Sentinel, for what they know as "Galaxy 29"

* * *

**Chapter 1**

While I was walking down the road which led to my home; A small row house in a small, normally not so noticeable town called Heartsprings. I, "jack-of-all-trades master of none" John Burton, aged 22, was thinking about the previous 2 months of my life. Looking back at it now, I suppose you can call that day my self-reflection day. The reason I was rethinking my past at the time was mostly due to my normally strange life throwing even stranger things at me then was usually the norm.

One of these strange things was in that specific case, a person. My sister Karla to be precise, who moved to the closest big city she could find, talking about "being free". I will be honest; I did worry about her even if she was (Well, maybe still is. I have no way to check anymore) as egocentric as can be. She was still not knowledgeable about the dangers life in a city can bring to a young 20-something lady. Maybe she stumbled upon this fact by herself by now. I hope this happened gently, but I fear she needed a shock to bring her back to reality instead of the fairyland her mind seemed to project on it.

My crazy uncle appeared in my thoughts as well, he was also known locally as The Fireworks Man. He liked fireworks a bit too much and blew himself up while playing with gunpowder and fire in his garden shed. Gunpowder and fire are a bad combination for sure, but he didn't get the nickname for working in a 100 percent safe way after all. The doctors made it pretty clear that he "would not be using his index finger anymore". To show everybody he was indeed still crazy he even said "I'll try to lose the finger of my other hand next time." My aunt almost fell unconscious because of that joke. The story made it through the gossiping channels of the local community very quickly and I'm pretty sure the doctors and other medical staff will remember him for quite a few years.

Anyway, as I was lost in thought like that, that evening. I was not expecting to cross paths with anyone. This route had been walked by me a few times already now round this hour. I had not even once found another person during my strolls. This led to me not really noticing my surroundings and made it so that I would fail to notice a blue orb floating in front of me before it was too late.

Then again one does not expect floating blue orbs at any time in one's life. Tonight however, a blue floating orb was present, right above the spot of gray pavement I would soon be placing one of my feet on. If anyone were listening at that moment they would hear the sound of a man falling and a man cursing everything till kingdom come shortly after the said fall. After I was done cussing out God, Satan and the followers of both, I began looking at the object that had made me stumble. On the ground was what appeared to be a sphere of some kind, slightly blue in color and about a foot in diameter.

Slowly, I walked towards the sphere, picking it up as soon as I had reached it. It felt strangely light, almost like part of its weight was.. Not there. Picking it up seemed to be the worst thing I could have done at that very moment to me however. It began glowing blue and displaying strange markings. Later I would learn that this was the boot up sequence, but right now I was scared shitless, too shocked to move. Suddenly a few of the markings displayed on what seemed to be a screen transformed into English characters. Recognizing these at least, I read them: "Translation in progress – New language interface setting: English" and "Initiating audio translation procedure Alpha-15". Right after I had read it, the sphere shot out of my hand and simply hovered 2 feet in front of me. Although soft, a low frequency sound emanated from it. Almost like a muted engine running. I also heard lots of clicking and squeaky noises coming from the sphere. That to me, made it sound like it was broken. Slowly the clicking and squeaky noises changed and I began recognizing some of these sounds as words, mostly "hello" and "machine". After 20 seconds I heard a ping from the blue sphere, it sounded a lot like the ping from a computer error message. This made me reaffirm my thought the sphere was indeed broken. The sphere however, did not agree.

Slowly, it started to form a sentence; "Identity confirmed: John Burton, 22 years old, college dropout". I tried to respond with "no need to mention the college dropout part", as it was touchy subject for me. The sphere did not heed me and said "Welcome John, your biological data has been stored and confirmed. Can I have a moment of your time?". This moment in time the sphere was referring to however, I was busy being marveled by and freaking out over the fact a strange blue sphere began glowing, hovering and talking at the same time. This was besides the sphere was storing my "biological data", which I figured to be my DNA, without my permission. Me freaking out led to me stumbling and falling though. This fall then led to a complete blackout of my mind when my head hit a hard object while falling. This hard object being the pavement.

When I woke up the first thing I noticed was a throbbing at the back of my head. I had apparently made quite the fall before passed out. The second thing I noticed (while rubbing the sore spot) was that the freaky sphere was still there and that it was not, as I had deducted before opening my eyes, a result of my brain going haywire because of the fall.

The sphere spoke to me after what was about 15 seconds of intense staring from my side. "John Berton, are you capable of rational thought yet?". I started to move away from the sphere, as it was a bit too close for comfort. "What do you mean whether I am capable of rational thought!" I said "I am always cape- Wait, you are asking whether I am alright?" The sphere's blue glow seemed to become slightly brighter before answering. Almost as if my question had made it sigh. "Yes, that would seem to be the current figure of speech on your planet". "My planet?" I thought. "You can't be serious, this thing seems to imply that it's from an extra-terrestrial origin, only one way to find out." I figured asking would be the best way to get more information "Please introduce yourself before we continue, this might make it a little easier for me." The sphere seemed to be willing to humor me, as the previously bright glow dimmed a little. "I am Sentinel Assistant Bot Three-hundred fifteen, also known as SAB315. I was manufactured on Garé." Personally, I had never even heard of the place which was mentioned by the floating orb of light. It did sound very French though. Something that did strike to me as odd was that it said "on", not "in" though. Almost like it wasn't a city on Earth. "What and where is this 'Garé'?" I said "I'm not familiar with it."

The glowing and hovering blue light bulb, the description of which had already been shortened to "Blib" in my mind for ease of reference, said (or at least vocalized) the following: "Garé is a planet in the Fanra cluster located in galaxy one. It is home to the "Somaref" Senatorial Manufacture and Research Facilities." This definitely gave me some material for thought. Possibly, the sphere was from an extra-terrestrial origin. Possibly, it was from extra-dimensional origin. Something that was also possible was that this was a dream or I was simply going bat-shit crazy. Knowing whether it was a dream or not was easy, clocks often did not work inside a dream. A quick check using my watch confirmed my suspicion that it was most likely not an image of my subconscious mind. As for me going bat-shit crazy, that would have to be tested another time as Blib began talking about "Existence and variety of life in galaxies protected by the Senate" and "Galaxy Sentinels".

At that moment I decided to play along for now, who could have known that it might lead me to where it did?

Well, I suppose the senate did.

...

Some of it anyway.

* * *

First chapter done. Slow start, but one needs a slow start to properly begin a story in my opinion. Updates will unfortunately also be slow due to real life requiring attention (and time), but will come eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sentinel 29**

The Senate of Life has come to know the fate that awaits the Mass Effect universe. Should these events come to pass they would be in violation of the senate's directive. They need a guardian, a Sentinel, for what they know as "Galaxy 29"

* * *

**Chapter 2**

We had moved to my room, luckily it was Tuesdays and nobody was in the house. My room was what one would expect from someone in my age category. A single computer on a desk, some posters of various fireworks I had gotten of my uncle and other (let's face it, worthless) stuff. Getting Blib there unseen proved to be surprisingly easy as it could fit in my backpack. I do remember sweating a lot though because of the risk of getting noticed on the way. Blib chose not to stay silent and having a talking backpack often makes people demand explanations. Explaining a talking backpack is.. Difficult at best.

"Let me get this straight", I said while sitting on my bed. "You are an advanced drone from another galaxy and have chosen to contact me!? Me, the jack-of-all-trades strategy game geek?" Blib moved back a little, almost as if my idea was preposterous to him.. Or her. Or it. Don't look at me like that! I simply had not been able to detect a gender from its actions or from its manner of speaking. After it was done moving backwards, it said "I have not chosen you, the senate has. To me you seem more fit to drive a dumpster truck then be a sentinel." Ignoring the comment of the orb and mental image of me driving a dumpster truck I asked "What is a sentinel anyway?"

Blib started stalking in a monotone way. Most likely he was repeating a preprogrammed text. "A sentinel, as defined by the codex of Extragalactic Life, is the sentient with the sole responsibility of protecting his/her or its fellow sentient beings and further the goals of the senate in a galaxy using the means given to him by the senate."

For a few seconds the only thing making a sound (besides the humming sound Blib made) was my desk clock. Then I started laughing. If anyone was in the house then they would most likely think is was going crazy. "You want me to be some kind of superpower protector guy, responsible for tens of billions sentient beings?" The drone patiently waited till I was done pushing out air in a strange way which it quickly categorized as laughing. The local connected grid on the planet helped with identifying the strange behavior. It was a useful information database, even if a bit limited in scope.

It vocalized just one word: "Yes".

Once again I fell silent, this time however it was due to a different reason. Blib's short and seemingly honest answer stunned me. After a few seconds I questioned its short one word answer with a word of my own. "Why?" "Please specify your inquiry more. I currently calculate there are five million three hundred and two possible meanings, to your current inquiry" the drone responded. I sighed. Damn vis. "Why was I chosen to be a sentinel?" I asked "Surely there is someone over there in the Mass Efffect galaxy who would be more qualified than me?"

"Negative, senate directive 27 sub paragraph 6b states that "To ascertain loyalty to the senate and its goals, a sentinel may not be taken from the indigenous galactic population" I thought about this for a while before saying "You think a person over there could have ties to factions in their galaxy which they deem more important." Blib made a bobbing motion. It looked very funny, seeing a floating sphere do that. I suppose it was close enough to the body language we use to indicate "yes" though.

"The senate fears rebellion and corruption then?" I asked. Out of noting a hologram started to appear in mid air, projected by the drone no doubt as it narrated a short video containing moving robots, spaceships firing their mighty guns and strange beings screaming for their life. "Affirmative, the Cremearon War was the primary cause for the passing of this legislation."

The hologram then switched to show a thing looking a bit like a monkey in space. Blib continued "The Sentinel of galaxy Fifteen had close ties to the "Primitus Xoraxub " political party and declared it's race was superior to all other sentient races. It started a genocidal purge of its galaxy."

"And you call this event the Cremearon War? Sounds like that's some heavy stuff right there, how many casualties?" I, once again, asked. "100 billion sentient beings dead, 5 out of the known 135 sentient races at the time hunted to extinction and 15 habitable planets rendered dead, before the sentinel was forcefully removed from its position." Blib responded while turning the hologram off.

"You have more nasty surprises like that about the place you're from?" I said while I walked to my computer, with the intention of taking notes. Blib responded, as always, quickly. "Affirmative, But telling you that is neither my primary nor secondary objective. It will have to wait." I silently cursed, those notes could make me rich. Then again an advanced VI would make me even richer. Still, I had decided to go along with it's strange story, trying to sell the Blue Light Bulb would most likely not help with that. "True enough I suppose." Not sure about answer would be coming, I took a deep breath before asking: "You want me to protect a galaxy, isn't that right?"

I glanced at Blib, apparently it had started projecting another hologram for when I returned my eyes to a more normal position the image changed. A quick look at it told me it was one of a galaxy, showing millions of stars circling around what seemed to be a galactic center. "Yes, the senate asks you to be the sentinel of galaxy 29." The hologram started to zoom in, first a star became visible, then a planet and after that a large object I recognized almost instantly. Its center looked like 2 rings spinning around a spherical core emitting a massive amount of power. (Well, the massive amount of power was just an assumption based on the light the spherical object was emitting) "Is that... A mass relay?" Blib made the hologram zoom in even more, making the object fully visible now. "This unit thought you would recognize it, it is the Charon relay. The main reason we require a sentient being of your planet is because you already have knowledge of the galaxy you know as Mass Effect."

"Now wait just a bit, you are going too fast for me here." I said, while using both my hands to indicate I wanted him to slow down. "You mean to tell me, that a series of 3 games and a few tiny downloadable expansion packs tell the history of a galaxy that actually exists? How is that even possible?" The flying light bulb stayed silent for a moment, seemingly having trouble to find the right answer. "We do not know." I made a face. It was an answer that did not satisfy my innate curiosity.

"You do not know? Are you really telling that a civilization spanning multiple galaxies has no idea?!" Blib floated up a little before continuing after my interruption. "The leading theory is that this was simply a possibility that could occur in the fabric of reality itself. Another theory which has less support in the senate and scientific community is that one or multiple higher beings made it so."

I sighed. So it was either a random occurrence or the will of a divine being. Not very hopeful news. I really hoped that any other information Blib had was more precise and based on cold, hard facts instead of speculation. Facts were the cornerstone of making appropriate decisions and I had little to go on at the moment. "I am going to ask some questions here that I want answered with either a yes or a no. I believe you have these answers" SAB315 wait a while before responding "Programming restrictions will stop me from answering all of your questions, but continue you inquiry." I stood up from the bed I was sitting on before asking the first question on my mind. "Mass effect is real?" Blib quickly answered "affirmative." I moved on. "The citadel and the mass relay network are real?" once again a "yes" could be heard. "The reapers are real?" Blib responded with "The rumors of their existence are quite widespread on various media in the galaxy. Although most official channels deny their existence they do have research teams on it. Their findings, if true, are frightening " I looked at the floating orb for a while before saying "i'll take that as a yes then." I took a breath before asking the last question on my mind "You want me to protect an entire galaxy against several thousands of 2 kilometer long dreadnoughts and smaller vessels capable of firing red hot molten metal beams?"

Blib simply said "Yes"

"SAB, I'm a single human on a backwater planet in a totally different galaxy, what good can I do?" I said at a tone which betrayed sheer disbelief. "A lot. You will be full granted access to senate's blueprints and construction methods along with any and all authority you require from the senate's assets in the Mass Effect galaxy." Blib said at a tone, which to me, sounded very confident. I brightened. "All assets of the senate" huh? Sounded pretty good to me. "What assets are we talking about?" A hologram appeared in the middle of my room, indication several red dots on a galaxy star map. I suppose it was the Mass Effect Galaxy.

"At this moment, 4 scouting drones" Said Blib.

* * *

Second chapter done. We are moving ahead little by little.


End file.
